About Naihan Li

Jingjing Naihan Li is an architect-turned-furniture-designer whose works reflect what she calls “the moody impracticality of globe-trotting.” Li studied design and architecture at London’s Bartlett School of Architecture, and early on in her career collaborated on a design project with the renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Her best-known series, titled “The CRATES,” was inspired by the shipping crates used for transporting artwork and her own experience living in “Beijing’s shifting urban playground where industrial and artist spaces are quickly discovered and soon destroyed,” as she says. The works in “The CRATES” are modular items of everyday furniture—such as bookshelves, beds, and armchairs—that fold up into compact crates for easy transportation. The series was nominated for the 2012 Design of the Year Award by the Design Museum in London. Li has also produced design projects in collaboration with Swarovski and the Gwangju Biennial, among others.